Noelle: A Neoliberal Christmas

[@PillarofGarbage]

Patreon supporters: here's this video's endnote. www.patreon.com/posts/endnote-noelle-76337938?Link&

[@TSDTalks22]

This seems like the bizarro world version of The Santa Clause if Tim Allen was neoliberal instead of weirdly conservative

[@kyleyoung2464]

This reminds me of a video The Onion made congratulating the worlds first female dictator.

[@magicalgirllaurie]

What a great Christmas gift. PoG breaking down the hollow ethics and politics of a Christmas movie I've never seen and completely forgot existed. I love it, keep up the great content.

[@abigfavor]

There's nothing in the rules that says a dog can't play Santa Claus 😂

[@efghd2624]

As someone who actually enjoyed this movie (I'm easy for Anna Kendrick's charm), I do agree with the point being made here. It was a fun watch, but nothing was truly challenged. I know its just "a cute christmas movie", but there definitely was potential that wasn't utilized.

[@soltandvinegar]

If you want to see the concept of Santa as an inherited familial title done RIGHT, watch Arthur Christmas. It's criminally underrated.

[@GrandArchPriestOfTheAlgorithm]

This video is officially certified by the Recommending Ones & Zeros.

[@user-lp3ew1xb5u]

Deaf culture absolutely LOVES when a small deaf child is thrilled when a hearing person comes up and uses ASL with them … like it’s a disability on full display and the abled body person introduces them to a wheelchair … everything slows down, the music swells and the poor, poor deaf child gets to shine in the hearing person’s light. It’s a Christmas Miracle ...

[@urnotl0r0s]

#saviorcomplex

[@NikkiLayne]

I haven't been getting your vids on my front page lately, so I'm just gonna comment here to help this one with a little E N G A G E M E N T

[@PillarofGarbage]

Much appreciated!

[@harry664]

A bastion of entertainment and analysis, ty for another good one and merry Christmas lad

[@BigK13372]

Why is it that Arthur Christmas seems like my go to movie for how to portray Santa as a title correctly?

[@Proctor_Conley]

I enjoyed you video! Neoliberalism, Capitalist Realism, & how Political Centralism always sides with Conservatism!

[@henryreed4697]

Excuse me but how does being a centrist lead to being a conservative? That just sounds like a talking point relating to an "us Vs them" philosophy.

[@Proctor_Conley]

@@henryreed4697 Thank you for asking. Political Centrism is a Logical Fallacy known as the "Golden Mean". Centrists always side with the "status quo", with the existing state of affairs, & that is always Conservatism. Example; Conservatives want slavery, Progressives want no slavery, & so Centrists allow some slavery. Replace slavery with poverty, homelessness, workers' rights abuses, defunding public education, deregulating environmental protection, deregulating corporation, or any other nasty topic & you'll always see Centrists side with the "status quo". Conservatives use this to undo all progress by walking-back regulations & human rights, as the modern USA Republican Party clearly demonstrates, though other infamous examples exist. It's a rather simple bit of logical obfuscation that powerful organizations have always used to control folks & keep them dumb, unfortunately, but now you know. Did you find this helpful?

[@henryreed4697]

@@Proctor_Conley I see. You do believe in an "us Vs them" reality. I understand your belief, but I say that it is illogical. For the record I would just like to state that I'm left wing myself and I believe that trying to cling to the status in an ever changing world as conservatives do is just going to fail. I do understand why conservatives wish to keep a status quo, searching for a non-changing monolith for stability in an ever changing world is something that is understandable to want. Even if it is a fool's errand. Anyway, your definition for conservatism is not what conservativism is, but rather it describes reactionary ideology. Most conservatives don't want to reinduce slavery for instance. If conservatives really want to maintain the status quo then going back to bring back slavery is then not conservatism since it would go against a status quo. Not all conservatives are horrible people, some are probably decent human beings. And not all centrists are conservatives, a liberal and a socialist are both leftists and yet in the US the liberal one would be the more centrist. Also centrists are going to differ depending on the nation they're from. An American centrist would differ from a french or Kenyan centrist. In France for example, both spectrums of the political sphere want to create workable public health care, unlike in America for instance. I hope I make sense with my comment and I hope you can understand why I disagree with you.

[@aceman0000099]

@@Proctor_Conley this sounds like an American view of centrism, aka "Biden" centrism. That's the idea that only compromise between the two predominant ideas is always the answer. This leads to capitalism in America because both red and blue parties are pretty right wing capitalist. I like to call myself a centrist, maybe a radical centrist, but I don't like that idea. I believe that centrism is about pragmatism, independent thought, and satisfying as much of the population as possible. I call myself centrist because I know that capitalism and communism are both ideals (fantasy), and they both have their merits, and in practice they have a lot of flaws. And the same with fascism and anarchy, they are both extremism that are illogical and dangerous to society. So the big picture is to stay inside a healthy balance in-between those extremes. Because I find that the benefits of one side help to end the flaws of the other. In your example, if one side wanted slavery, then the opposite of enslaving africans would really be to give them all the power. Both ideas are bad, and the middle ground is to give everyone an equal amount of power/opportunity, which is what equal rights/democracy does. Now, in this version of centrism, there is no 'time relative' center, that can be moved further right by having more rightoids make decisions. It's absolute centrism. Which I think is almost equivalent to social democracy

[@Proctor_Conley]

@@aceman0000099 You are having a Bad Faith Argument with a Logical Fallacy & it exposes you as deeply narcissistic. Please research the terms "Golden Mean Fallacy" & "Bad Faith Argument" to understand. Why would a stranger ever explain something if you're just going to ignore it? I see no room for conversation if you only listen to yourself.

[@owlgoddess8534]

“how the hell do you make a christmas movie neoliberal?” i thought before watching this. oh. that’s how

[@nailinthefashion]

LMFAO ignorance is bliss, truly

[@fitzytail896]

I think they were just going for a cute Christmas-sy movie with a splash of that Kenndrick charm and add a dash of light feminism and a whole butt-loads of traditionalism and we have a Christmas movie that is not Hallmark.

[@aceman0000099]

Yeah it's as deep as the DVD it went straight to

[@nailinthefashion]

@@aceman0000099 that's such a good burn but also quite generous

[@timothylivingston4135]

There's nothing in the rules that say a dog can't play basketball!

[@lotsoflogan49]

There's nothing in the rules that says there's no crying in baseball!

[@woops9076]

Getting real house of the dragon vibes here.

[@ThePonderer]

God I hated this movie. Especially the ending where after all that build up, Noelle does absolutely nothing but fuck things up when it comes time to actually deliver the presents. Like the movie just completely closes over how she’s absolutely not the right person for the job, it’s nuts.

[@marocat4749]

So they couldnt even like unionize elves with a councel of elves? Her putting some female allies she makes into a position. Like it would be nice if she gets there with support of others who too, and that they end in a bit better position with like,unionizing elves, by giving them a council with some power. Her doing soup kitchens and give homeless food, in need. Something i guess. Something,

[@mariannedarrow7227]

Yes I agree, a wonderful Christmas gift from Pillar of Garbage. I love your analysis. Happy Christmas PoG

[@beriukay]

@10:04 wow, they did a half-ass Air Bud right there!

[@jrenskew]

I think about this type of thing with a lot of Santa films! I would so love a santa movie that starts off with the usual trope - dude becomes santa but is very bad at it - but then shifts to him freeing the elves, making santa a democratically elected position, and uses the north pole's magic to revolutionise the world.

[@butterflyenergy2782]

I really enjoyed this movie and I was looking for videos on it, so im happy to have found yours!

[@leephillips4402]

So Part Arthur Christmas, part The Santa Clause, part Fred Clause, part Elf, part The Good Place, part Santa Inc, part every Disney Live Action Remake.

[@PillarofGarbage]

precisely

[@leephillips4402]

@@PillarofGarbage now I'm wondering what the good version of that would look like.

[@Abominatrix650]

I always learn so much from your videos, POG. Thank you!

[@ddwatchings]

i would say that the movie "arthur christmas" is my favorite depiction of santa

[@jeremyusreevu237]

For me, it's Ernest Saves Christmas and Violent Night.

[@robdeakin1166]

Another great video.

[@pickleridge5656]

this really was a pillar of garbage christmas

[@nrpbrown]

I love how this essay thematically fits right in line with Shaun's critique of Harry Potter and its systemic class and social justice problems. This feels like a recurring beat in "progressive" stories which I don't care for and I hope gets better but I doubt it.

[@colinvandenberg3446]

" [Snort] WhAT wOuLd HaPPeN???!" For those who know, you know.

[@onearmedbandit84]

This looks absolutely dreadful but I will contend that Forest Gump is the quintessential neoliberal film. A cursed, whitewashed, cliff notes boomer trek through roughly 25 years of history in which a mentally challenged man named after the founder of the Klan who grew up on a plantation house does good things and gets rewarded while his traumatized childhood friend who was nice to him does 'bad things' and gets punished. The first instance of Forest being spliced into history is him was him going to return a book to a black student who entered to register University of Alabama after Governor Wallace was forced to step aside for the US Marshalls sent to enforce the integration of the school, all of which was televised and witnessed by his football coach whom he plays for at said university. Does the film show Forest face any consequences for his actions in this unprecedented time from the administration or even his piers? No. It just skips ahead to him graduating from school, becoming a war hero, and a celebrity ping-pong champion who got sent to China and then an overnight capitalist thanks to divine intervention miraculously destroying all other competition in a hurricane. Hell, the film's penultimate sequence is an Elon Musk wet dream in which he's running cross-country while entrepreneur fan-boys cultishly ask him for advice for business ventures only for him to turn them into overnight capitalists on complete accident. Meanwhile Jenny gets involved in the anti-war and hippie movements and gets shellacked for it.

[@PillarofGarbage]

I feel like one of these days a revisionist Forrest Gump take will go unbelievably viral

[@marocat4749]

Renegade cut did one,but for all the wholesome in the movie, yes, its very much demonizing jenny for being an activist and him just going along as puppet unknowingly for propaganda. But there can always be more on it.

[@fredo3161]

You want to punish the innocent retard and make excuses for the hippie drug addict who takes advantage of him (literally rapes him and takes his son) and leaves him constantly. 'Bout sums up what's wrong with the world today.

[@FiendaroÖ]

What the actual fuck are you talking about?! Forrest Gump is neoliberal?! Jesus Christ, you people need to stop reading so deep into things and getting so radicalized. You’re all fucking insane.

[@koalasquare2145]

All my homies hate neoliberalism

[@baldmitzvah]

real

[@pickleridge5656]

good

[@an8strengthkobold360]

Fr

[@gamongames]

so, its The Good Place but weirdly monarchist

[@eomoran]

Hey, PoG, red border isn’t that ideal as when I’m scrolling it makes me think I’ve seen this already, this is why most of those JRE and podcast clippers use a luminous green border if they can. I legit was about to slip over this as I thought I’d watched it already

[@Dartyus]

Critical support for Snowball

[@thomashyle6098]

I thought this was gonna be a comedic song :D

[@PillarofGarbage]

Sorry to disappoint!

[@jeremyusreevu237]

I've never heard of this movie. Looks interesting. And speaking of streaming-exclusive Christmas movies, check out Spirited. It's a fantastic movie!

[@andleepfarooqui7874]

I disagree with the idea that primageniture or patriarchy would be justified if men were intrinsically better.

[@kyleyoung2464]

Do you think smarter people should have more say? Sounds food to me. But what if we lived in a world where suddenly men where automatically smarter, should we elect dumb people to be inclusive? Athletic ability is just another trait, like skin color or gender, but its perfectly ok to discriminate in regards of that because it actually matters when it comes to sports. Where as race and gender don't really give much of an advantage. If we could have a perfect world where anyone could do anything then that would be preferred.

[@andleepfarooqui7874]

@@kyleyoung2464 no. Superior ability does not imply that domination is ok. Intelligence and alignment are different and even in a hypothetical world where men were really significantly more intelligent by an absurd degrees, it would still be wrong to exploit feminized subjects and ignore their points of view. If Superman were real, he wouldn’t be justified in, say, becoming the dictator of Earth. Similarly, neither would Braniac if he were real.

[@andleepfarooqui7874]

I’m not sure if I am communicating; I don’t know if it makes sense for nonpowered Santas to become Santa in the Noelle-verse; but I’m not interested in the Noelle-verse as much as the real world and I think that the reason I think that this is a bad argument against patriarchy in the real world is because it’s fundamentally based on these shoddy and irrelevant facts about men and women. What I feel is the problem with patriarchy is that people almost always have a better idea of what they themselves want and need than others would. The system of domination by patriarchs necessarily draws power away from women and makes the world less likely to serve the needs of nonhegemonic genders. Gender minorities (in terms of power not number) would still be moral patients if some freak accident made every cis man hyperintelligent or something. The goal of representation is to make the powerful able to represent subaltern classes as well as a proxy for the needs of these classes. The problem with neoliberal representation is that the interests of racialized people with power, for example, differ heavily from the interests of racialized people without power and thus they serve as bad proxies.

[@PillarofGarbage]

That's not totally what I'm saying - it isn't that if men *were* better, these things would be justified, it's that their lack of betterness is one facet of these systems' wrongness

[@shlomophobe5582]

So wait, it turns out that average ability and competence in absolutely every possible regard are precisely equal among men and women in all times and places throughout all of human existence? Doubt

[@FirstLast-wk3kc]

Finally not a flop of a video. Marry Christmas and Goodluck

[@UlyssesPSC]

oh boy

[@CLCSIfreak]

Isn’t she the older sibling? The whole point being that Santa passes to the firstborn, when everyone assumed it was the firstborn son?

[@cassielcruzchavolla809]

So it's like Arthur Christmas but with questionable political implications?

[@PillarofGarbage]

Yes 😎

[@Ben-rd3mg]

Honestly this movie is less neo-liberal and more just regular conservative or reactionary

[@duncanw5644]

This movie could've been so good. All they really had to do was keep the themes on point and not pander to the vocal minority of people who believe in killallmen.

[@hayleygullett]

Well, now I understand the girl boss Santa. The major flaw with this movie reminds me of Zootopias horrible race analogy and empty themes

[@zzay3345]

Analytics

[@FIDreams]

But I thought that the only reason why Santa's male is because it was a representation of a Real Life person St Nicholas. I'm I wrong, sexiest, or raciest to presume this?

[@FIDreams]

Doesn't really matter what we believe nowadays. The history of it wasn't to 'bring down females or people of gender' but to celebrate and isn't that what the holidays are all about?

[@juandiegotorres9632]

No you are right.

[@FIDreams]

@OdinsSage But tell me, Why now? What makes This time a time that all of a sudden we need to change things? (and not just in this) My point is, there's a larger picture that no one is looking at.

[@Squatch76]

This is just a fun movie to watch. Christmas classic for me and I’m a Texas libertarian if that helps as well as a movie essay enjoyer. Calm down, it’s a fun quirky Christmas movie and critiquing it do death is not fun, save that for a drama…

[@an8strengthkobold360]

Ok but you choose to watch the vid. It should have been obvious what kinda video it was based off the title.

[@forkspoon5375]

I thought it was just a fun Christmas movie but go off I guess

[@TheFreakDownStreet]

Comment for the comment god!

[@bengallup9321]

I found the product placement in this movie really irritating.